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Air Canada's latest Maple Leaf Lounge enjoys pride of place at revitalized LaGuardia Airport in New York

Air Canada's new Maple Leaf Lounge at LaGuardia Airport in New York opened Tuesday

Peter Hum

Published: December 6, 2018 - 11:02 AM

In the new Terminal B Eastern Concourse at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, the best seats in the house belong to Air Canada.

Last Tuesday, the airline opened its latest Maple Leaf Lounge on the second floor of LaGuardia’s much-anticipated expansion, the concourse having debuted just a few days earlier. Amid the pouring of champagne and a parade of canapés, VIPs fêted the launch of the lounge, a sleek, undulating space of more than 7,000 square feet with capacity for 126 premium customers.

“Obviously with a new terminal opening, we want to be part of it,” said Andrew Yiu, Air Canada’s vice president of product. Because Air Canada has more than 20 flights a day leaving from LaGuardia, it was crucial for the lounge to open as early as it has, Yiu elaborated.

The new lounge is almost twice the size of its now-shuttered predecessor at LaGuardia, which itself welcomed more than 81,000 travellers last year. Perhaps the key difference between old and new, though, is the new lounge’s optimal location. In addition to the lounge being closer to the gates that Air Canada uses, it is located beyond airport security, whereas the previous Air Canada lounge was not.

“That is a big thing that we’ve solved. It gives the customers the ability to work and relax in the lounge right up until departure time,” Yiu said.

The LaGuardia lounge was also a priority for Air Canada because flights here are also prone to weather delays, he continued. The lounge can provide a respite for stranded Air Canada customers who are “often at the airport longer than they want to be,” Yiu said.

Among these customers are not only Canadians on their way home to Toronto, Montreal or beyond, but also travellers using Air Canada to fly out of New York to reach international destinations via Canadian hubs, he added.

Other airline lounges are to open in LaGuardia as part of its renewal, including a United Airlines lounge beside the Maple Leaf Lounge next year.

LaGuardia is in the midst of an $8-billion U.S. overhaul, including a $5.1-million U.S., 35-gate Terminal B that is to replace a 50-year-old terminal. The eastern concourse that opened last weekend below Air Canada’s lounge features gates surrounded by retail outlets including iconic New York toy store FAO Schwarz, food and drink outlets including the celebrated New York-based burger joint Shake Shack, an airport-themed children’s play area and even a spa.

Escalators beside Shake Shack lead to the Air Canada Lounge, which will operate seven days a week and be staffed by personnel who have been trained to serve the needs of premium customers.

The lounge is two years in the making and was designed by the international architecture and engineering firm HOK, which also designed LaGuardia’s new Terminal B. It’s a spacious, calm, winding, Wi-Fi-enabled area decorated with maple screen walls, Canadian-made furnishings and abstract paintings that bring New York to mind.

Air Canada’s new Maple Leaf Lounge at LaGuardia Airport in New York opened Tuesday.

Air Canada’s new Maple Leaf Lounge at LaGuardia Airport in New York opened Tuesday. Abstract paintings bring New York to mind.

Solo travellers can rest or work at comfy chairs with nearby power outlets and USB ports. At the self-serve bar, taps dispense Molson Canadian, Coors Light, Guinness stout and a Samuel Adams seasonal lager. Lavazza coffee, Canadian wines and soft drinks and water are also available. Two large-screen TVs provide diversions, while business travellers can make use of PCs, a colour printer, and access to content from more than 7,000 digital newspapers and magazines via the PressReader app.

The lounge at LaGuardia is one of 23 Maple Leaf Lounges worldwide, of which 17 are in Canada. Yiu said Air Canada is making a concerted push to woo premium customers with its lounges and other high-end services, and that a Maple Leaf Lounge is planned to open in San Francisco next year.